Acacia

Acacia, commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about 1,084 species of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Australasia, but is now reserved for species mainly from Australia, with others from New Guinea, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean.

Acacia

Thennicke · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
wattlePBDB
Sits inside
FabaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 5 of 126 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 126 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 17 of 126 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 23 of 126 occurrencesPleistocene — about 75 of 126 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.8–8.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.2–6.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.5–4.9 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.9–3.3 Mya — about 13 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 38 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 47 occurrences41.03 Mya11.7 ka49 Mya0 Mya

126 occurrences of Acacia on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

126 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

9 formations

Nkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ELusso Beds — 0.03°N, 29.62°EKoobi Fora — 3.85°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 4.06°N, 36.33°EOlduvai — 2.96°S, 35.31°ESepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WSan Sebastian — 18.30°N, 66.88°WSan Sebastian — 18.37°N, 66.19°WCulebra — 9.03°N, 79.63°WLukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°EGuchengzi — 41.84°N, 123.90°E

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The named rock units Acacia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 81 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acacia and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Acacia and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

894 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 86 sites for Acacia, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

28 references

Each of the 126 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 16 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Acacia

Credit
Thennicke
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
evolveduk
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itFabaceae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Miller 1758